ND Republican Party Mails Out 20,000 Absentee Ballot Applications Without Some Required Info

• September 30, 2008

This is going to get ugly…

North Dakota`s Republican Party left off some required information when it mailed absentee ballot applications to about 20,000 people.
Secretary of State Al Jaeger says county auditors should accept the ballot applications anyway. Jaeger says the mistakes are not the fault of voters, and they shouldn`t be penalized for them.
The applications were mailed more than a week ago. North Dakota law says an application should include space for the voter`s drivers` license number and birth date. The Republican application did not ask for that information.
The state Republican director says it was an oversight. The state Democratic director says absentee ballot applications should follow the law.

Someone at the NDGOP is undoubtedly having a bad day today.
I think the fix to this isn’t to fight it. The law is the law, and trying to sneak through with some “well we’ll set it aside this time around” excuse isn’t going to cut it. Not only because it gives North Dakota Democrats (still smarting from the departure of The One’s presence in the state) something to crow about, but because it undermines the NDGOP’s ability to criticize Democrats for these kind of lapses in the future.
Again, the law is the law. We’re still a long way out from the election, so rather than playing partisan games with the Democrats just mail the ballots out again. And put a copy online to download too.
Nobody wants to see people unable to vote because of a technicality, but we can’t just ignore the law when it’s convenient.
On a related note, it’s interesting that Sec. Jaeger is willing to bend the rules for the NDGOP but stuck to his interpretation of the law (which wasn’t the correct one in my opinion) when it came to the ballot language on the measure 2 tax cut.

Tags: North Dakota News

http://Array Jim

It is also in law that you basically write,
“Send me a ballot” on a napkin with your address and sign it and they are required to send you a ballot.

The law that requires a drivers / ID number is in direct conflict with about 3 other sections of century code that if the GOP was faced with a challenge, they would undoubtingly win.

For example, the law that authorizes vote by mail actually has a request form written out within the law that states what it should look like.
Conservative Reader

Rob,
Your original post was right-on. If we deserve the high ground, then we must re-earn it every day. this is a test of political character. Resend the applications and put the matter behind us. It’s that simple. Do it!
Hungry Bear

The Republican Party may end up helping Obama as much as Biden hurts him.
http://views-from-right.blogspot.com/ subbob

Where is the accountability? Someone, or several people, had the final approval on these applications.

20,000 X (Postage Cost + Printing Cost) = a lot of money spent

One of the problems with our governmental bureaucracies is that so often no one is held accountable.

Who made the mistake? Who should have caught this? and whose paychecks or nest eggs are being garnished to pay for the mistake?

In this case it’s not taxpayer $$ being wasted, but the money came from somewhere. That’s a lot of $25 and $50 donations, made in good faith, that just went down the drain.
http://sonofasillyperson.blogspot.com/ sonofasillyperson

On a related note, it’s interesting that Sec. Jaeger is willing to bend the rules for the NDGOP but stuck to his interpretation of the law (which wasn’t the correct one in my opinion) when it came to the ballot language on the measure 2 tax cut.

My thoughts exactly – as I was reading the first couple of paragraphs, and especially when Jaeger said “the mistakes are not the fault of voters, and they shouldn`t be penalized for them”, I immediately thought of the reaction to the screwed-up Measure 2 language.

It’s no wonder that citizens don’t trust their government. One of the foundations of trust is being able to predict people’s likely reactions to tough situations. If you have no idea what they’re going to decide, there’s no trust. End of story.
WhatTha?

The problem is that many of the requests have already been sent back to the auditors. If the Republicans send out another application and the voter thinks the first one they returned may not be accepted, they may return another one and possibly get two ballots mailed to them. Since there’s no voter registration in ND, there’s a real possibility of this happening.

Although Jaeger is bending the rules here, he probably has no better choice.
gilbyguy

Oh fer Xrist sake ….

If a county auditor is presented with request for a absentee ballot he/she is require to send one. If all information isn’t presented that would be taken care of at the county canvassing board … (you know when the vote is actually tallied)

Jager is fulfilling his mandate to make sure that every legal vote is counted.

The comparison with AFP is apples and oranges. It is not the Sec. of State’s job to write ballot language. It is NOT his job to tell county auditors who can vote.

There’s an old rumor going around political circles in ND that says Jaeger doesn’t want voter registration because he doesn’t want to register as a Republican.

Sorry Rob … Thant’s BS
Kay

I sent this link to our daughter, away at college. She applied for her absentee ballot just a couple days ago so I don’t know if this affects her or not.

I agree, the law is the law and it has to be applied fairly and accurately as required…
FlybyKnight

Interesting that Jaeger will bend the rules for the NDGOP, but not for AFP regarding the ballot language for Measure 2.

Also, I thought I read somewhere that Jaeger opposes voter registration – which, as WhaTha? points out, would solve a lot of potential issues in the ND voting process.
CJBerg

What are we that vote by Absentee Ballot supposed to do? Anyone have an answer?
dannyboy

Just another example of Republican incompetence.
Palinisabimbo

ROFLMAO! Rob, how do you spell “implode”?
http://proof-proofpositive.blogspot.com/ proof_positive

What are we that vote by Absentee Ballot supposed to do? Anyone have an answer?

Personally, I requested another ballot, but on a form not printed by any candidate.
Some states can exercise the right to vote early in person or to drop off an absentee ballot in person up to the day of the election. Call your local Board of Elections for details.
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

There’s an old rumor going around political circles in ND that says Jaeger doesn’t want voter registration because he doesn’t want to register as a Republican.

I’ve always seen him as a pretty fair guy, but he did mess up on the Measure 2 ballot language.

This situation has him between a rock and a hard place, as WhatTha points out.

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ND Republican Party Mails Out 20,000 Absentee Ballot Applications Without Some Required Info

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